Today we had our first official visit with an ob-gyn (male, charedi) doctor. All in all, a positive experience. I wasn’t expecting anything crazy, pretty much a questionnaire of whether I smoke and if I’m taking vitamins. Oddly, neither of those topics came up.
Oh sure, I’ve been to Israeli gynos before, male charedi gynos even, but this was, of course, different, because I wasn’t only getting a questionnaire, but a checking-out, and not only a checking-out, but a souvenir.
Even though it’s only about seven weeks, we had our first view of the little bean that is currently residing within my insides. It’s amazing how hi tech this stuff is. He showed us the ultra-sound screen and pointed out the little bean that looks nothing like a creature, nevermind a human.
Then he said, “Yecholim l’rot ha-dofek. At ro’ah et ha-dofek?”
I had no freakin’ clue what he was talking about. Doesn’t dofek mean heartbeat? How does that thing have a heartbeat? I nodded and smiled politely but I knew he knew I had no clue what he was going on about. So he kept repeating it, and the word dofek pulsed in my brain. Hey, doc, if you think it has a heartbeat, then I’m perfectly ok with that.
Later on, we sat back down at his desk and went over the details. He said things are looking good for these early weeks. He mentioned the dofek again. I had to politely interrupt –
“When you say dofek, what exactly do you mean?”
“Dofek – pulse, heartbeat – you mean you didn’t see what I was talking about?”
“Oh… uh… I did… I just… They have heartbeats already?”
I guess I have a lot to learn. Like planning our wedding in Israel, this is a whole new experience that’s going to require a whole new Hebrew vocabulary.
Whadya got: